Speed Dating
by Magical Who
Summary: As the last single girl in her group of friends, Katie decides to give speed dating a try. Oneshot


"I CANNOT believe you two talked me into this!" said Katie as she stood in front of her bathroom mirror applying make-up and fixing her hair with Alicia and Angelina on either side of her.

"Stuff it Katie. It could end up being really great and then you'll have us to thank!" said Alicia adjusting a lock of Katie's long blonde hair.

"Yeah Katie. Don't knock speed dating until you've tried it," added Angelina.

Yes that's right. At 28 years old, Katie Bell had resorted to speed dating to find the man of her dreams. Both Alicia and Angelina were already married and Alicia was pregnant with her first child. Katie was still single and extremely focused on her career as a healer.

"Why couldn't there have been Weasely triplets? Then I would be all set," Katie moaned. Alicia had married George, Angelina had married Fred, and Katie could have taken the third. It would have been perfect.

"I don't know if the world could handle another Fred or George!" laughed Alicia. "But Percy is still on the market…"

"Ugh suddenly I am very excited about this whole speed dating thing. These blokes have got to be a step up from Perfect Prefect Percy," said Katie as she finished fixing her hair and make-up.

"You look stunning, Katie. The boys will have already decided they want to go out with you before they sit down at your table!" said Angelina. Katie had to agree. She had applied just the basics of make-up—some blush, a little lipstick, and mascara. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a French braid with a few wisps of hair framing either side of her face. And her blue sweater definitely highlighted her blue eyes.

"I just don't see how 7 minutes is enough time to know whether you want to date someone or not," Katie whined.

"Just try it Kates. And call us afterward!" said Alicia.

Angelina practically pushed her out the door. "Off to the Leaky Cauldron with you!"

Katie stepped out into the alley near her flat and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. It looked much different inside. In fact, it looked like it might have actually been cleaned in preparation for the event. And the lighting situation was much improved. Small tables were haphazardly placed around the room and tucked into small nooks. Katie approached the registration table.

"Hello. I'm Katie Bell," Katie said to the witch manning the table.

"Hi Katie," said the witch. She shuffled through a stack of papers and eventually handed Katie a nametag. "You will be sitting at table 14. Right over there." She pointed to a table that was tucked under the stairwell to the second floor. 'Well at lease my prime location will be a talking point,' thought Katie as she made her way through the bar. It was already quite crowded. Women were seated at most of the tables and the men were milling around near the bar waiting for the event to start. It was too crowded for Katie to make out any of the faces. Katie was hoping that she wouldn't know anyone else there. She tucked herself into the chair under the stairwell and waited for the event to start.

Eventually a buzzer sounded and the woman at the registration table stood up. "Hello and welcome to our speed dating event here at the Leaky Cauldron. After the final round of speed dating, be sure to check out our drink specials at the bar. You can get two love potions for just 2 sickles!" The crowd laughed nervously. "Gentlemen you have all been given your first table assignment. Please make your way there now. When the next buzzer sounds, please proceed to the next table. There will be 15 rounds in all. Round 1 starts now. Happy dating!"

Guy number one approached Katie's table. He had a stocky build and short white blonde hair. He smiled at her as he shimmed into his seat.

"So did you have to pay extra to get this table?"

Katie couldn't help but laugh. This was off to a good start.

"I'm William," he said.

"Charmed. I'm Katie."

"So Katie what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a healer. I work at Saint Mungo's. I spend about half my time with patients and the other half in the lab trying to create new healing potions."

"Wow that's just great. I work in the investments group at Gringotts, but that's very dull. I won't bore you with all my financial talk. So I take it you excelled in Herbology in school?"

"I guess you could say that. It was hard for me to excel in any one subject. I was on the house Quidditch team and had a very demanding captain. He didn't leave much time for studying."

"Oh wow. I would have given 1000 galleons to be on the house team. Let me guess…you were a chaser?"

"Yes! What gave me away?" Katie asked smiling. This was going really well so far.

"You seem you're used to having guys chase after you…"

'Oh gosh…what a line!' Katie thought as she shook her head and laughed at his comment.

"Really though it was your build. Or at least what I can see of it in this romantic lighting and from this crammed vantage point."

"Yes it is very flattering. I could have a beer belly and you wouldn't even be able to tell."

"Well I hope I get a chance to find that out for myself. See you out from behind that table sometime."

"I'd really like that," said Katie as the buzzer sounded, signaling the end of round one. "It was great to meet you. Enjoy the rest of your night."

"You too."

It seemed to Katie that it was all going to be downhill from that point. The next few rounds did not go well at all. During several rounds, it came up that she had been a friend of Harry Potter's and most of the questions centered around him. Although Katie would have rather answered questions about Harry than questions like, 'If you were a potion ingredient, what would you be?' or 'What is your favorite flavor of Berty Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Bean?' Katie would much rather have had a conversation than answer these silly little speed dating questions.

After the end of round 14, Katie was very thankful that she had at least met William and would be hopefully getting one second date out of this evening. Katie had just finished filling out her comment card on guy number 14, when the final suitor sat down. When Katie glanced up, she couldn't believe her eyes. Even though the light at her table was very poor, she would recognize him anywhere…

"Oliver?"

"Katie! What are you doing here?"

"I think that's obvious isn't it? How have you been? It's been ages!"

"Good. I've been doing really well. Playing for Puddlemere United."

"Well of course I know that. I do still follow Quidditch Oliver. You beat that into my head pretty well. How are _you_ doing though?"

Oliver hesitated a little bit. "Okay," he finally said. "Being a famous Quidditch star isn't all it's cracked up to be. I mean the Quidditch is great. I love playing. I'm just not crazy about all the stuff that comes along with it."

"Like what?"

"All the public relations stuff. I have to show up at all these events, do interviews, and have my picture taken…it's like I never get any time off. When I'm not on the pitch, I have to be working on my brand. It's exhausting."

"I can imagine. I never really thought about that before. To a humble healer at Saint Mungo's it all seems very glamorous."

"You're a healer now? That's great! I always knew you'd be great at that. I can't even count how many times you had to heal me after I took a buldger to the head."

Katie laughed. "I obviously did a good job. With a lesser healer you would have lost brain functioning a while back."

Oliver smirked. That trademark smirk. It seemed crazy to Katie that even though they hadn't seen each other since the war ended, it felt like just yesterday they were tossing the quaffle around on the pitch after practice.

"It's really good to see you again, Oliver."

"It's great to see you too. How has the night be going for you?"

"Well it started off well. And it's ending pretty well. But I could have done without the middle," said Katie.

"That's more than I can say. This is the first real conversation I've had all night."

"What's wrong Oliver?" Katie asked. "You don't like to talk about how you would spend the day if you were transfigured into a flobberworm."

Oliver laughed. "During some of the rounds, I would have rather been a flobberworm. At least it will all be over in about 30 seconds."

"You know Oliver," Katie said with a smirk. "If you had asked me out back at Hogwarts, you could have saved us both the trouble of coming here tonight…"

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "That's quite bold, Bell." He pulled out his comment card for round 15 and wrote 'ABSOLUTELY' next to the question 'Would you like a second date with this person?' and showed the card to Katie.

Katie beamed. Alicia and Angelina had been right after all. Speed dating was a great idea.


End file.
